by Dean Murray
"Very well, Katherine. Selene and Ari say that you've offered to take them camping and then out on some jet skis. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that it's a very generous offer, but I'm just not comfortable with the idea of the three of you young girls being out there by yourselves…"
"I understand your concerns, Mr. Jenkins. Frankly I think in your place I'd probably feel the same way, but I hope that you'll humor me and listen for just a few minutes while I tell you a little bit about my brother and me.
"My father never had a college degree. He dropped out of school when he was seventeen so that he could work full-time to support his family after my grandfather was injured in an industrial accident. He never let that stop him from continuing to learn though. He used to make incredible machines in the shed behind our house.
"As luck would have it, a few years ago he managed to secure a job with one of the few dotcom startups that had a real product to sell. They needed someone who had common sense and the ability to make things with his hands. The job paid even less than the one he'd had before, but he believed in what they were doing and even took out a second mortgage on our tiny house in order to secure extra stock options."
Dad shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "That was risky."
"Indeed it was Mr. Jenkins. I think it scared my mother half to death. The four founders were college kids who didn't have much money, so my dad had provided the bulk of the initial capital and with it got final say on all additional funding. When the venture capital groups started calling, my dad just kept vetoing deals until he finally found one he liked. It came just in the nick of time because the demand for the company's product had been skyrocketing. That was the leverage that allowed my father to secure the deal that he wanted.
"As it turned out, just six months later the company went public, but in the meantime my father had been taking care of the business side of things while the four kids who were the creative force behind things continued to innovate. Everyone involved made an obscene amount of money, but most especially my father. Unlike most people would have expected, his partners never forgot that it had been him who provided the initial seed money and steered them through the negotiations with the venture capitalists."
"That sounds like a fairytale, Katherine."
"I'm not surprised, I've lived it, and that's a very good description of what it has felt like. I can provide you with the name of the company and the phone number of the current CEO if you would like to verify things, but that isn't why I'm telling you all of this.
"I was very young when all of this was going on. We have lived very well for a number of years, but I still remember what it was like to be excluded from the popular crowd because I didn't wear the right clothes and didn't live in the right part of town.
"After we had money everything changed. The same girls who wouldn't even give me the time of day suddenly wanted to be my friends, but I never forgot the fact that it was only my father's money that they liked. When my parents died things became very difficult. It seemed as though everyone around Jace and me wanted to be our guardians simply because it would give them—at least temporarily—access to our family's money."
"I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thank you."
"So you went to a court and asked to be emancipated."
"Indeed, and then we moved to a completely different part of the country and tried to blend in. That lasted for just over a year and then people found out who we were and we had to move again. That has happened several times so far, but we have decided that this will be the last place we live before going off to college. On our first day here it was only your daughters who befriended us, and now I would like to return the favor by taking them on the kind of trip that I always wanted to go on before we had the money to do so."
Dad sighed. "That is a very touching story, Katherine, but it doesn't change the fact that you're still not yet eighteen and you're taking my daughters off into the woods where any number of things might happen."
Kat reached into her pocket and pulled out a driver's license, which she set on the table and slid towards my father.
"Jace and I are both old for our grade in school. My mother was a firm believer that it was best for us to be advanced compared to the other kids rather than being developmentally behind and struggling. I've been eighteen for months now."
"I've seen my fair share of fake ID's, Katherine. You'll have to do a lot better than that."
Kat smiled and pulled out a passport and a birth certificate. "I'm not lying, Mr. Jenkins. Camping was a tradition for my family back when we had very little. If it was just Jace and I, maybe we would be going up to the lake and camping in tents, but given your understandable concern for your daughters' safety, I'll be bringing our forty-two-foot motor coach, which will be locked up all night, and Jace will be staying home and only joining us the next day to enjoy the jet skis."
Dad looked at his watch and then sighed. "I have your word that there won't be any boys or booze or drugs?"
"Absolutely."
"And you really know what you're doing driving a vehicle that big? You know how to stay safe on the water?"
"Yes, of course."
Dad turned to me and gave me the look. "Do I have your word, too, Selene? No boys, nothing that you know I wouldn't approve of?"
"Yes, Daddy. It's just like she said. A girls' night camping followed by some time on the water."
Kat cleared her throat. "I know that you have to work tonight or I'd invite you along, but if you'd like to join us tomorrow on the lake you'd be most welcome."
"Thanks, I just might do that. You can go. Just please be careful. My daughters are all I have left."
"I will personally make sure that nothing happens to them. You have my word."
Chapter 17
I saw Dad off to work, and then Kat and I zipped back into town to pick up my car and meet up with Jace and Ari. Ari was predictably on cloud nine at having been picked up by the hottest boy in the entire town, but I just made another mental note to talk to Jace about not leading her on and tried not to let the gushing get to me.
Ari and I hadn't bothered packing that morning because we hadn't been positive that Kat was going to be able to convince Dad to let us go. We both headed towards our car, expecting that we would need to go home and pack now, but Jace told us that our house was on the way and we could pick up anything we needed on the way out of town.
I should have realized that he was up to something then, but I was too busy worrying about the way that Ari bounded right over to his Viper so that she would be able to ride with him rather than riding with me. I was mumbling under my breath as I put my car into gear and followed Kat and Jace out of the parking lot.
Keeping up with a pair of Awakened who could amp up their reflexes and even bend time with nothing more than a thought wasn't very fun, even when they were making a conscious effort to go slow. I nearly lost them a couple of times, and I was in a bad mood by the time I pulled into their ridiculously long driveway.
All that frustration floated away when I saw Jace waiting for me by himself in the garage. If that hadn't been enough, the surprise he had in store next would have done it. One of the guest bedrooms was stocked with a closet full of brand-new clothes all in my size.
"How in the world—"
"This is part of what I was doing yesterday when I came home to get things ready for you. There are stores you can call with someone's measurements, give them some general guidance and a budget and they will overnight you a complete wardrobe."
I tried to keep my disappointment from making it onto my face. It was still an incredibly generous gesture, and right up until that point I probably would have said that it would be weird having a guy shop for me, but I suddenly realized that I didn't care as long as it was Jace doing the shopping. Only it hadn't actually been him, it had been some random store employee.
Jace watched me bravely struggle with my disappointment for several seconds before s
miling at me. "You know, it's cute when you're so predictable. I had the store employees send me Ari's clothes sight unseen, but I picked out everything here for you."
My eyes darted towards the dresser despite my best effort to keep them under control. I had a sneaking suspicion that when Jace said he'd ordered up a complete wardrobe that really meant that he'd ordered up a complete wardrobe.
It was pretty apparent that he and I had been a lot more than just friends back in the day, and with all the craziness of last night I hadn't had a chance to sneak back up to his bathroom and grab the wet underwear I'd left hanging on his towel rack, so it wasn't like he'd never seen my underwear, but the thought of him picking underwear and swimwear out for me was both alarming and super-hot. The thrills of excitement that were almost a constant staple of being in his presence were reaching new heights.
"I hope I did a decent job. If there's one thing I've learned over the last five hundred years it's that all girls like shopping sprees. I knew we weren't going to get a chance to steal you away from your dad long enough to actually take you on one, but I wanted to do something for you, and this seemed like the next best thing."
I reached out and put my hand on his arm, glorying in the rush of heat it sent shooting through me. "I'm sure you did great, Jace. Thank you—this was an amazing gesture."
There was the slightest pause as we both realized that we didn't know what to do next. I suspected that the old Selene would have at the very least given him a very enthusiastic kiss, but I wasn't sure we were at that spot yet.
Don't get me wrong. I wanted to kiss Jace with a desire that was more intense than anything I'd ever felt before, but I was also scared to death of acting on the urge.
Jace was five hundred years old and even if he only remembered the last hundred years, that was still a lot of time in which to kiss girls. Especially when you were an incredibly gorgeous demigod.
At the very least, I knew he remembered kissing the old me, and for all I knew he remembered kissing Sandra back in the day too. More than likely he'd kissed dozens, maybe even hundreds of girls, but kissing Jace would be a first for me. I was probably not going to be very good at it, and even if I was, it was hard to compete against a version of yourself who had been rich, powerful and experienced.
The pause could have become awkward, but Jace broke the contact before things got to that point. He patted my hand and then let it drop off of his arm.
"I'll go ahead and let you pack. Kat already showed Ari to her room and based on the squeals of delight I heard before you got here, she's very happy with the choices the personal shoppers made. I should go double-check the vehicles."
I checked to make sure that the door was closed, and then realized with a thrill that this was the first time I'd ever been alone with a boy in a bedroom with the doors closed. My mouth was so dry that I almost couldn't get the words out.
"I'm worried about Ari, Jace. I know the plan is for you to keep her distracted, but I don't want her to get her heart broken."
Jace sighed. "I don't want that to happen either, Selene. I'm being as careful as I can—I don't know what else to do. If I have the friend talk with her then it's all too likely that she's going to go running straight to your dad."
"How do you and Kat know that? I thought you couldn't read minds."
"We can't, but we can amp up our senses. It's expensive, but for short times we can basically turn ourselves into human lie detectors. It's not perfect, but it's generally right, especially when the person in question doesn't realize it's being used on them."
"Have you ever used that on me?"
"Not in this incarnation. I've never needed to. You're so much like the old you that most of the time I already know what you're thinking, even without it."
"Wow, that's awkward."
"It doesn't have to be. It means that I know you're nervous about being compared to the old you."
My face flushed, but when I turned away, Jace gently pulled me back around.
"You don't need to feel embarrassed, Selene, and you don't need to worry. One of the amazing things about kissing you is that every time felt like the first time."
Jace gave me one last smile and then slipped out of my room before I could say anything. He left the door open though so I could hear Ari squealing as she found each new surprise waiting for her inside of her closet.
I stood there looking at my door for several seconds until the sound of Ari packing reminded me that I needed to get started if I was going to be ready to go on time. I grabbed the suitcase waiting for me next to the bed and decided to start with the most embarrassing thing first.
The dresser drawers slid open with the kind of smooth action that you don't get out of the cheap dressers from the places where my family could afford to shop. Inside was a full array of socks, more bras than I'd ever owned in my entire life, and enough underwear that I wouldn't have to do laundry more than once a month if I didn't want to.
Once I'd selected a range of underwear and had it packed away, things went very smoothly. We were only planning on being gone for twenty-four hours, so I could have gotten away with a lot less than I ended up packing, but once I got started pulling clothes down from the hangers it was hard to stop.
It wasn't until I got to the swimsuit section of the closet that I remembered we were going to be in the water. Blah. I'd only thought that packing the bras and underwear was the worst. At least they were all going to stay safely underneath my clothes, out of sight, even if they weren't ever completely out of mind.
A swimsuit was something else entirely. I could always throw some shorts on, but there was only so much you could do to cover yourself up in a swimsuit before it became obvious that you would much rather be wearing a tent.
I took a deep breath and started pulling suits out where I could see them. Preliminarily at least, it wasn't as bad as I'd expected. Once again, Jace had been a lot more conservative than you would expect from a teenage guy who was dressing a girl in whatever he wanted. Then again, despite his appearance he hadn't been a teenager in a long time.
None of the suits were one-piece, but that was understandable given just how hard it was to find a suit that fit my ridiculously long torso. Instead they were all tasteful two-piece numbers—mostly tankinis, but even the two bikinis looked like they were going to keep all of the important bits covered up.
I picked two of the former out, one blue, one black, and then hesitated before grabbing both of the bikinis and throwing them in the suitcase too. I wasn't planning on wearing them, not since my dad might show up at some point during the day, but I figured if worst came to worst that I'd fit into the bikinis—they were a lot more adjustable than a tankini.
I filled out the rest of the space in my suitcase with a pair of cute black swim shorts and a gauzy white cover-up that seemed like it would help obscure stuff at least a little without making me look like I was hiding.
It was about that time that I realized that Jace might not have even seen the suits that the personal shoppers had picked out for Ari. My little sister has always had more…aggressive taste in clothing than me. It's been a regular source of friction between her and my dad over the last few years. Honestly, I'm not sure how Dad hadn't managed to put two and two together. No girl, regardless of age, was going to battle to wear the kinds of things that Ari routinely wanted to wear unless she was very interested in boys.
I decided that I'd better get over to her room and try to head her off from bringing anything really slutty. Unfortunately, by the time I grabbed some pajamas and a pair of flip-flops, Ari was coming out of her room with her bag packed and a big grin on her face.
I knew it might cause a fight, but I went ahead and asked the question anyway. "You didn't pack anything too revealing, did you, Ari?"
"I'll bet you'd like to know. Worried that your boyfriend picked out something really hot for me?"
"No, I'm worried that you're going to embarrass both of us and make Jace supremely uncomfortable by dre
ssing like some kind of teenage hooker."
"Okay, Mom. Would you like to pull out your ruler and go over every single article of clothing in my suitcase? How am I possibly going to embarrass him by dressing in something that he picked out for me? If he bought it, then he'd like to see it on me, and given the amount of money he just spent on us, I'm inclined to make him happy."
I was tempted to point out just how hookerish she sounded, but that would have caused the huge fight that I'd been hoping to avoid. Luckily there was another option.
"Jace didn't pick any of this stuff out for you, Ari. He just called up some hoity-toity department store and told them that he needed a complete wardrobe for a fourteen-year-old girl."
Ari suddenly looked uncertain. It was hard to go wrong betting on guys enjoying seeing a little skin, but she didn't want to be wrong, not when it might put her out of the running.
"He at least saw it all when he hung it up in my closet, so I think I'm safe."
"Yeah, if he really stopped to look at it all as he was hanging it up, and if he was the one to hang it up. Do you see Jace spending that kind of time pulling stuff out of packages? My bet is that Kat was the one to hang it all up."
I had her there. The average guy was extremely unlikely to 'waste' hours hanging up clothes like that. Of course I actually had no idea who had hung the clothes up in our two closets unless Kat had done it when she'd come home to change for the meeting with my dad. Even if she'd been bending time that seemed like an awful lot to try to fit into one hour.
"Fine, I'll stay away from the more whorish stuff that I packed, but don't think that I don't know what you're doing here. You're worried that your boyfriend is going to see something tomorrow that he likes, and that it won't be you."
"Be careful, Ari. I honestly think that Jace is just being nice. I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not interested in him, but I also don't want you to get hurt. Jace is quite a bit older than you…"
"Three years is nothing, Selene. I have plenty of friends who are dating seniors right now."
